REVIEW: Their One and Only by Trista Ann Michaels

Angela James made me buy this book so blame her for the review. We were chatting on Twitter the other night about twincest, incest, groupcest, and the like. Within the menage ouvre, there does seem to be an awful lot of brothers who enjoy sharing women. In at least one review of a similar book, one commenter suggested this was incest. Given that they don’t have any sexual contact, other than through the woman that they share, I’m not certain that it is incest (and neither was the twitterverse although that could mean we are all deviants with no moral code).

Ms. James suggested that this was a book that dealt with the psychological concept of sharing more than other menage books. When I went to purchase the book at Fictionwise, I noticed right away that it had 508 reader ratings with the great majority of them “Great”, the best ranking Fictionwise offers. The warning includes “This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable: ménage (m/f/m) with twins sharing a partner without being sexually involved with each other…“

Kaycee Alcott is a model who is kidnapped by a serial killer. She manages to escape before anything is done to her. (This was actually a very realistic and suspenseful scene). While she is captured, Sam and Tyler Warren, FBI profilers, are able to locate her through a psychic link developed through a scarf of hers that was dropped at the scene. Sam and Tyler are identical twins and when they both touch something, they can feel, hear and sometimes even see the owner’s immediate experiences.

Sam and Tyler are portrayed as two halves of one whole, separated only by the physical plane. On the spiritual or metaphysical plane which can be reached when both are touching something or someone, they become one being. Because Sam and Tyler live, work, exist in the physical plane, their unity of spirit represents a significant challenge when it comes to being with a woman. To achieve true completion, they would need to share a woman because if Tyler falls in love, Sam does as well.

Tyler is convinced that Kaycee is the one and argues that she should be placed in their protective custody by the FBI while the serial killer is being hunted down. Sam rejects this idea fearing being emotionally at risk again. Tyler wins the argument and Kaycee is taken to their remote ranch in Texas. She finds herself attracted to both men and fairly easily accepts the idea of sharing.

The conflict is more focused on Sam allowing himself to give over to the idea of a long lasting relationship with the three of them. He believes that no woman could truly handle being part of a threesome for the long term. The suspense part of the story plays out in the latter half of the full length book.

This is a very erotic story and the scenes are generally very sexy other than a few descriptive missteps (i.e., “pouring” is used twice in reference to liquids emanating from Kaycee’s pussy. Once was enough. Twice is cringe inducing). Kaycee wasn’t immediately indoctrinated into being fully shared without preparation and I thought that was important.

There are problems. I thought part of the prose was rough, particularly the non-erotic scenes. Further, Kaycee does not use a condom during the first sexual act she has with one of the twins. Afterwards, the twin apologizes and Kaycee dismisses this as non important given that she “gets the shot.” I cringed when I read as one twin explained to Kaycee “We’ve shared before. Many times.” and she still thinks condoms are optional.

Sam and Tyler spend a good time debating about how Kaycee is the one. During these arguments, Sam regularly brings up the fact that they have fallen in love before and the other women (plural) haven’t been able to handle the two of them in a long term relationship. The women are good for one night but not for a lifetime. This made it seem like Sam and Tyler spent a good portion of their adult life falling in and out of love and it made Kaycee seem more fortuitous than a true love of either of the men. After all, if all it took was acceptance of the two to make the love circuit whole, any woman could do, not just Kaycee.

The “she’s the one” refrain that Sam and Tyler sang throughout the book diminished in meaning for me given that the “one” really just referred to a woman who they could both share and who would desire them equally. Maybe there really was just one woman, but I would have liked to have seen Kaycee be something more to them that completing the circuit. For the erotic part, I would give it a B+ but the romance and the suspense made it less fulfilling for me. Despite my complaints, I did enjoy the book and Angela James is still in my trust network, spending my dollars on books. C+

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Jane Litte is the founder of Dear Author, a lawyer, and a lover of pencil skirts. She self publishes NA and contemporaries (and publishes with Berkley and Montlake) and spends her downtime reading romances and writing about them. Her TBR pile is much larger than the one shown in the picture and not as pretty.
You can reach Jane by email at jane @ dearauthor dot com

Comments

I thought this book was different in that all three characters directly speak about how difficult the possibilities of living within a threesome might be. Kaycee has a bit where she says that keeping one man happy is often hard, especially in the sex department, she couldn’t imagine how much harder it would be with two. I thought this was more honest than a lot of books w/a similar setup are and is what made this book stand out for me.

I agree that the beginning suspense part was well done. I was impressed. And I concur with you on the issues you noted.

Though I have a strong preference for books with humor or mystery, this one did rise above the usual brother menage book. While I thought it somewhat over rated, I feel that way about a lot of erotic romance. Here there was one brother that was a ‘glass half full’ with the other a ‘glass half empty’, the yin and yang of optimism and pessimism.

I agree with Angela that this is one of the very few books that addressed the physical and physiological difficulties of sharing for all concerned over the long term.

It will be part of my June monthly ‘erotic romance round-up’ for my blog – and it fared somewhat better with me getting a C+ to B-. That’s about as close as I’ve been with DA on a common book review. :-)

I still don’t understand why the twins can’t just date other people. I don’t buy the whole “sorry, chick, you gotta get DP’d the rest of your life because we’re psychically connected and luuuuurve you…that, and you’re the first woman we’ve found who’s dumb enough to play along” thing.

Meh. you lost me at “two halves of the same whole” as regards the twins. That is my least favorite device. Is it too much to write the two brothers as dynamic characters in their own right? I guess it must be.

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